Editor, Daily Nexus,

Handling a big win is easy; all you do is smile, thank the people who helped you and refrain from rubbing it in the loser’s face. However, to lose gracefully requires exceptional strength of character – a quality that, for the time being, Students’ Party candidate Romy Frazier seems to lack.

I cannot say that I am particularly surprised by the election results. Throughout the campaign, Students’ Party and its presidential candidate portrayed an attitude that they were somehow entitled to win the election. Based on Frazier’s comments to the Nexus, this sense of entitlement somehow perseveres in the face of defeat.

“There’s no way this could have happened if [the voters] had been paying attention,” Frazier laments when speaking of her loss. First of all, I find it hard to believe that on a campus with a total enrollment of 19,799, of which only 5,003 undergraduates and 836 graduates voted, that the relatively few of us who did bother to go on GOLD weren’t paying attention. A good leader shouldn’t resort to insulting her constituents simply because she does not agree with their choices.

Personally, I paid attention throughout the campaign. All I heard from Students’ Party regarding the presidential race were attacks on Jared Goldschen and attempts to take full credit for the regents deciding not to raise fees. The fact that the fees had been raised several times before, and the efforts of the entire University of California Student Association, had nothing to do with that, right?

Frazier did have one thing right: Goldschen was more media savvy, and that’s part of why he won. He didn’t stoop to Frazier’s level by attacking her for her negative attitude throughout the campaign. He didn’t point out that she’s never served as president of a large organization – compared to Goldshen’s two years of experience – and after the race was over, instead of continuing to speak poorly of his opponents as Frazier did, he extended the offer to work with all of them to improve the UCSB community. As painful as it is to lose, Frazier should swallow her pride and learn from Goldschen’s example.

The A.S. president is more than just a leader. He is a representative of the UCSB community and his conduct becomes tied to the image and reputation of our school. I, for one, am happy that in this case, the nicer person finished first.